


Graduation Day

by SeverinadeStrango



Category: Sengoku Basara, 学園BASARA | Gakuen Basara | Gakuen Basara: Samurai High School (Anime)
Genre: Bittersweet, Crying, Gen, Seriously so much crying, Severina's September 2019 Requests, Slice of Life, school setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21982186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeverinadeStrango/pseuds/SeverinadeStrango
Summary: In which the student body must bid the upperclassmen a tearful goodbye.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Graduation Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sam/gifts).



> This was written for Sam, my sister, as a request for the month of September 2019.

Masamune had told himself that he would be excited for his friend, his right eye when this day finally came. They were walking across the stage now, Kojuro and Sarutobi and everyone else – shaking hands with the faculty, accepting that piece of paper that they’d spent so many years here for. Just a few months ago it seemed like they’d have forever, and now those times had abruptly come to an end. But now here he was, watching him take his place at the front of the classroom with the rest of those that had completed their time here, and the tears came before he could stop them.

“Masamune-dono!” Yukimura exclaimed from somewhere beside him, but he paid him no heed, instead trying to hide his face and wishing very much that the ground would open up beneath him and swallow him whole. No such luck. “Masamune-dono, are you all right?!” 

“Shut up,” he croaked, his voice muffled against his sleeve, but it was far too late. Sanada was looking straight at him now, along with probably half the classroom. He’d hit low points before, and his team knew that better than anyone else – they had been the ones to lift him back up! However this was different, he wasn’t supposed to show this sort of weakness in front of them, not when they looked to him as their number one! He felt a hand clap on his back and was shaken once, roughly. 

“Just one more year, Boss Masamune.” That _didn’t_ help. It would be him up there next year.

“Kojuro,” he choked out, and then before he could stop himself, “don’t you dare leave.” 

_Idiot._ They’d _never_ let him forget this, but the jig was up anyways and here came Kojuro now, breaking out of the line in between quickly-snapped photos until they were side by side and then he was hugging him so tight that Masamune could barely breathe. He never wanted it to end.

“I’ll come back, boss, don’t you worry!” He couldn’t tell if Kojuro was smiling or on the verge of tears himself, but it sounded like a little bit of both. Sanada wasn’t helping either – he’d started to get misty-eyed as well, and then quickly drew the remainder of the attention in the room towards himself as he sprinted towards Sarutobi, catching him around the waist and all but bawling into his shoulder. “See? You’ll still have the rest of the team, and a rival to go up against.”

“It’s not going to be the same,” Masamune murmured petulantly, “I’ve never _done_ this without you!” The team had formed a protective little huddle of sorts around Kojuro and Masamune both, knowing their leader’s dislike for being seen in an emotional state, knowing that as much as they spoke of bone-deep camaraderie, these days too would come to an end.

The hallways wouldn’t feel the same, nor would the classrooms or the practice fields (intact or demolished, it made no difference). What was he to do? Who was going to have his back? What was the one-eyed dragon without his right eye?

“What am I going to do – “ his breath hitched a little and he stifled a hiccup behind his hand, but Kojuro was in tears himself by now. He never had been shy about crying in front of others before and now was no different – he was going to miss the Academy, crazy Headmaster and all, now that it was all said and done. Just days ago it had felt like a lifetime was left before them, and now Kojuro would have given everything just for a few days more. 

“You’ll see, Boss Masamune,” he said, but the encouraging aspect of his words had long been lost – instead there was just bittersweet celebration, the celebration of having made it through, of having passed this marker that they would all take their final steps over one day. It was off to university for him now, just like he had been talking about for quite some time – but it had always seemed to be so far away before. Kojuro had not anticipated to be staring it in the face so, so soon. Sarutobi, he guessed, was similarly affected, but addressed it through different methods, given that right now his attention was entirely on comforting one loudly sniffling Sanada Yukimura with uneasy laughs and back rubs. They’d been together since childhood, those two – just like him and Masamune. There had always been years where they were briefly separated, like when Masamune had still been at Oshuu Middle School while Kojuro started his first year at the academy, but now that he’d graduated the physical distance between them would be further than they had ever encountered before.

“I’ll come to the games,” he choked out, clasping Masamune’s hand in his own, “every single one of them. You’ll see me there, cheering you on. I’ll have your back, you know that? I always will. You _know_ it, Boss.” 

His words were echoed, here and there, or at least fragments of them were, by the surrounding members of the baseball team, pressed in tightly around them on all sides in an enormous hug that nobody wanted to be released from. Someone reached out to the side and snagged Sanada and Sarutobi, enveloping them as well, cameras and pictures momentarily forgotten as they all fought to remember these last few moments that they would spend together, here, as students of Basara Academy.

From the sidelines, Tokugawa Ieyasu watched with a watery smile of his own, reminding himself to cherish the times he had left here, to never lose sight of Tadakatsu’s loyalty, to appreciate what laid hidden within every moment that remained. When he had first started here, he never would have imagined that Mitsunari would ever take his hand, and therefore his peace offering – but here they were, and it warmed Ieyasu’s heart. He was sure it had a similar effect on Mitsunari – not that the other would ever admit it. Mitsunari would have rather gone to his grave.

_And yet._

“Just think,” he whispered to himself, “it’ll be _us_ one – “

From somewhere to his right, Mitsunari threw an eraser at his head. 

“Do not finish that sentence,” he ground out. Ieyasu laughed, and with one hand wiped at his eyes. Time was fleeting indeed.


End file.
